A page from one of the Qur’ans found stuffed into the ceiling of the oldest mosque in Sana’a, in Yemen. It has been provisionally dated to the end of the first Islamic century – making it one of the oldest Qur’ans in existence.
Alexander the Great, shown on a coin wearing the horns of Amun. In the Qur’an, Alexander appears as Dhu’l Qarnayn – “The Two-Horned One.” (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)
Mecca. Despite the starring role that the city is given by Muslim tradition, no source prior to the Qur’an so much as mentions it. The first dateable reference to it in any foreign text appears in 741 – more than a century after the death of Muhammad – and locates it in a desert south of Iraq. (AFP/Getty Images)
A church built in the sixth century to commemorate the cave beside the Dead Sea where Lot was believed to have taken shelter after the destruction of Sodom. The episode is first mentioned in the Bible, but is also alluded to in the Qur’an. One verse implies something puzzling: that the Prophet and his audience lived within easy reach of the petrified remains of the Sodomites. “You pass by them morning and night; will you not understand?” (Tom Holland)
The outline of an early mosque found at Be’er Ora, in the Negev Desert. It has two semi-circular architectural features that indicate the direction – the qibla – in which the faithful should pray. The oldest, pointing directly ahead, is oriented towards the east; the later, on the right of the photograph, points towards Mecca. (Tom Holland)
The river Yarmuk, with the Golan Heights in the background. Nowadays, the river constitutes the border between Syria and Jordan; back in the seventh century, it was the site of a stunning and decisive Arab victory over the Romans. (Tom Holland)
A coin issued in 685 or 686. It is stamped with the first dateable inscription on any coin or building to mention a Muhammad who is also “the Messenger of God.”
The Dome of the Rock. (Tom Holland)
Abd al-Malik, the Deputy of God, girt with a whip. (The Art Archive/Ashmolean Museum)
The marker of a revolution. For a thousand years, the Greek and Roman rulers of the Near East had been issuing coins stamped with the human image – but in 696, Abd al-Malik brought an end to that tradition by issuing coins that featured nothing but writing. (The Trustees of the British Museum)
The Great Mosque in Damascus, like the Dome of the Rock, made something novel and stunningly beautiful out of the inheritance of the past. (Tom Holland)
Faded and damaged as it is, this painting on the wall of a caliphal palace in the desert beyond Syria demonstrates just how vibrant and enduring classical traditions might be, even a whole century after the Arab conquests. (Tom Holland)
The Caliphs – and the Arab conquerors generally – were great connoisseurs of female flesh. This particular statue comes from the exquisite palace built at Jericho by Hisham, the last of Abd al-Malik’s sons to rule as Caliph. “He who wishes to take a slave girl for pleasure”, so Abd al-Malik himself had advised, “let him take a Berber.” (Tom Holland)
The failure of the great Arab siege of Constantinople in 716 owed much to the devastating Roman weapon of hygron pyr – liquid fire. (Bridgeman Art Library)
Iraq under the Abbasids remained what it had been under the Sasanians: a prodigiously wealthy land of rivers and canals. The Tigris is on the right-hand side of the map and flows southwards from the bottom of the page towards Baghdad, the greatest and most cultured city in the world. (Bridgeman/Egyptian National Library, Cairo)
About the Author
Historian Tom Holland is the author of the works of history Rubicon, Persian Fire, and The Forge of Christendom. He reviews regularly for the TLS, and has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio. Rubicon was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the 2004 Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History, and Persian Fire won the Anglo-Hellenic League’s 2006 Runciman Award.
Also by Tom Holland
The Forge of Christendom:
The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West
Rubicon:
The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
Persian Fire:
The First World Empire and the Battle for the West
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgements
List of Maps
Epigraph
I INTRODUCTION
1 KNOWN UNKNOWNS
II JAHILIYYA
2 IRANSHAHR
3 NEW ROME
4 THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM
5 COUNTDOWN TO APOCALYPSE
III HIJRA
6 MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
7 THE FORGING OF ISLAM
ENVOI: PLUS ÇA CHANGE?
Timeline
Dramatis Personae
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
About the Author
Also by Tom Holland